Archives For August 14, 2013

I only really took notice of actor, Kevin Sorbo, after watching his work on the Gene Roddenberry series Andromeda. The T.V series ‘Hercules’ barely made it as a blip on my adolescent radar of ”must see” viewing.

Andromeda isn’t too bad of a series. It explored, in great detail, the consequences of unity, intercultural conflict, ideology and how important it is to allow room for a theological perspective in life.

The very existence of a commonwealth which was destroyed by a society based on Nietzschean (God is dead – will-to-power-Übermensch [superhuman/above human]) ideology, who were also in league with a dark being called ‘the abyss’, is a curious thing for a theologian. For instance: Karl Barth references nothingness (evil) as being like an abyss, and in Evangelical Theology, he infers that the Church is by its very existance a ‘Commonwealth of Christ’.

I think the persistence of the protagonists, allows the drive of the story to enter into places that, for me, showed the positive impacts that faith and reason can have, when correctly viewed as existing side by side and not dichotomously. The enigmatic ‘Divine’, Dylan Hunt [Sorbo] and his team, one of whom is a Nietzchean mercenary, embark on a quest to re-establish and reunite the peoples commonwealth 300 years later.

The series is full of tension and conflict. The dialogue engages in an array of discourses about origins, natural selection, God and probably most intriguing of all, the power, point and purpose of hope. This is not to imply that I had no qualms with the series. On the contrary, there are some low points such as semi graphic scenes of the Magog. A race created by ‘the abyss’ to devour worlds by eating all their inhabitants. (hence the M rating, in Australia anyway).

Suffice to say I think, that like Orwell’s 1984, Roddenberry’s narrative has serious areas of relevance that any critical thinker, especially a theologian would benefit from.

Given the characters played by Kevin Sorbo and themes of power and strength therein, it is refreshing to hear the man discuss the truth as he has experienced it. In a recent interview (linked below) Kevin talked a little about his faith and the impetus behind the publication for his book ‘True Strength’ released in 2011. I plan to read it and may post some thoughts on it here if I do. You can read a little more about this here…